Rooftop Confessions! Ranma's Mind and Body
by FrictionX42
Summary: Ranma goes up to the roof to talk to himself about his feelings and Akane overhears. This is a companion piece to Rooftop Confessions! Akane's Heart and Soul, RCRMB merely switches the places of the two. I have no other stories based on this one.


Rooftop Confessions part 2:

Ranma's mind and Body

A fanfic by Frictionx42

RANMA ½ AND ALL OTHER CHARACTERS USED IN THIS STORY BELONG TO RUMIKO TAKAHASHI, SO DON'T GO THINKING THAT I'M THE ONE MAKING UNTOLD THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OFF OF THESE CHARACTERS BECAUSE AS MUCH AS I'D LIKE THEM TO BE THEY AREN'T. AND THEY'RE NOT YOURS EITHER, (UNLESS YOU HAPPEN TO BE TAKAHASHI-SAMA IN WHICH CASE THANK YOU FOR READING MY FANFICTION AND I AM DEEPLY HONORED) SO DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT TRYING TO MAKE MONEY OR ANY OTHER SORT OF ADVANTAGE OFF OF THEM OR ELSE YOU'LL HAVE TO DEAL WITH A LOT OF VERY PISSED OFF PEOPLE AS WELL AS LEGAL AUTHORITIES. THEY AREN'T NICE SO PLAY FAIR, ALL RIGHT?

"Aww man, what's in this? Are ya tryin' to kill me again, Akane?"

"Ranma, you stupid jerk, you haven't even taken a bite yet! Now are you gonna try it or do I have to get mad!?"

_ Somehow I'm not so sure that you aren't already pretty mad. _Ranma considered for a moment, then settled himself down and steeled his nerves for a bite. The greenish-brown jelly-like substance on the plate oozed at him happily. Ranma almost lost his nerve to continue on the spot. He could swear the thing was sentient, and was worried that to eat it could mean he was destroying some new race that would eventually become allies of all mankind. He toyed around with that idea, then wondered if he would be doing them all a favor by eating some gelatinous monster that would eventually destroy the whole population of the planet. He had to admit either way was possible. It was a scary thought. He watched it for a few more seconds, and when he was satisfied that at least he didn't have to worry about it getting off his plate and trying to kill him, that it was better to not worry about it and go ahead and take a bite.

It seemed to shrink away from Ranma's chopsticks as if it recognized its natural enemy, but Ranma grasped at a bit of it anyway. It stretched out from the rest of the mass in a sticky sort of way, and a piece of it broke off in his grasp. The ticking of a clock could be heard against the stillness of the night as Ranma slowly brought it to his mouth. He placed it inside, and closed his mouth around it.

Thirty minutes later he was on the rooftop with a large red mark on his cheek and a lump on his head.

"Why does that dumb macho chick always have to get so mad every time I tell her the truth about her cooking? It's not like I asked her to fix me a snack or anything. Like it's my fault that nothing human could withstand her cooking!" He settled back on the roof and tried to calm himself down so that he could get around to the rest of his day. He still had to practice with his father, eat lunch, do his homework, eat dinner, and try to get some sleep. He figured it was best not to have too much planned for the day since most of the time someone or something would come along and mess up the whole day. He pondered the fiancée problem for a little while, then knowing he was no closer to getting an answer now than he ever was, he decided to figure out what he could do to straighten things out with Akane.

"What is it with her, anyway? I never asked for a fiancée, and I sure as heck never asked for her!" Ranma bellowed. In a much softer voice he continued, "But I've said all of that to myself before. It don't seem to matter, I can't get her out of my mind. I'm always doing things for her, but it doesn't help, 'cause she don't even notice! All she does is hit me with that hammer of hers - and yell at me." He lay on the rooftop for a few more moments in silence, and then erupted anew, "Man! What am I gonna do 'bout Akane? I care about her and all, but I dunno how she feels. That, and the minute I tell anyone, it'll all be over. I don't wanna have another marriage ceremony like the last one! Akan- somebody coulda gotten hurt! And the last thing I want is for somebody else to get hurt 'cause of me."

Akane was livid. To imply that she was angry was to imply that Nabiki took a little interest in financial matters. No, like her sister and her monetary expertise, Akane had anger down to an art form. She stamped around the Tendou home for a little while, looking for Ranma so she could get him to finish the meal she had prepared for him, then looked down to notice that it seemed to have fallen off of the plate. She looked for it for a few minutes, and then figured that Kasumi had already cleaned it off the floor and thrown it away. "That idiot! If he had just stayed and finished it up, then- AARGH!" She seethed the entire way up to her room and changed quickly into her yellowed gi before going back downstairs and out to the dojo for a little practice and to blow off some steam. As she left the house, however, she she heard something that stopped her dead in her tracks.

"What is it with her, anyway? I never asked for a fiancee, and I sure as heck never asked for her!"

The Jerk was up on the roof. Talking about her. Her anger renewed, she quickly found her way up to the rooftop and began looking for him, mallet at the ready. She zeroed in on the sound of his voice, then made her way silently toward his position. She paused, ready to strike, on the other side of the apex of the rooftop, when she heard him continue.

"Man, what am I gonna do 'bout Akane? I care about her and all, but I dunno how she feels. That, and the minute I tell anyone, it'll all be over. I don't wanna have another marriage ceremony like the last one! Akan- somebody coulda gotten hurt! And the last thing I want is for somebody else to get hurt 'cause of me."

Akane paused, shocked at what she had just heard. Thoughts and emotions played across her mind like wildfire and flitted in and out of her head. Had what she just heard been real? Ranma seemed too preoccupied with his soliloquy to realize that she had come up to the roof and was in fact only a short distance away from him. Akane decided that his death could wait a short while, at least until she got some more information. Ranma, unaware, went right on with his rambling.

"I hate having all these fiancees. Why can't I just have one? Why not just Akane and let the rest go? Because then they'd get hurt – at least with the way things are now, nobody really gets hurt too much, but I'll have to deal with this situation sooner or later. At least I know what my decision will be when the time comes. I just hope that I'm not wrong. Shampoo and Ukyou never let me guess even once what their feelings are to me. I know they love me, but I don't know about Akane. That's the funny part. I know what the others think about me and what they want from me, but I don't think they have the right reasons. I just wish I knew what Akane feels for me. I know she was going along with the wedding, but once that was over, she went right back to hitting me again and we started fighting. Was she just going along with it because I saved her life? Did her dad force her into it? Why was she willing to marry me that day? Was it so I could get a cure for my curse?" Akane sat and listened to all of this, too stunned by what she was hearing to move or even speak. She felt her anger washing away as she listened to the sound of his voice, its soft baritone intoxicating her senses, drawing her deeper into its magic spell that had ensorcelled her so long ago. Akane started paying more attention to Ranma's voice than what he was saying, and so missed the next few sentences. She inched forward slightly until she could see his face. She inadvertently drew in her breath when she saw him. Ranma had closed his eyes, and was lying on the other side of the rooftop from her, his features relaxed so that he looked like he was sleeping. Her gaze lingered on his face and hair as the breeze played with it gently waving it from side to side as he lay in the sun. Akane couldn't help but thinking, _He almost looks like a different person like that. He's always so stressed out, but he is really handsome when he's relaxed like this._ Akane caught herself and began listening to his words again, but he'd switched topics.

"-Pop take me on that stupid trip in the first place? I can't go home anymore, I can't live a normal life, I can't even call myself a guy half the time! This stupid curse is the cause of all my problems! Without this curse, I could actually let my mom know that I'm doing all right. I could call myself a guy, I would be able to walk outside without worrying about the weather, I could enjoy myself instead of always having to sneak around, hoping that nobody will find out that I'm a girl half the time! I wouldn't have to deal with Kunou, and Tsubasa would have left me alone. Now that I think of it, Ryouga wouldn't be as mad at me, and Kodachi, well, she probably wouldn't have just left us all alone. The problem with Shampoo would have been over a lot faster and easier, since she never would have followed me to Japan, I wouldn't be engaged to her. That would mean I would never have had to deal with Mousse or the Old Ghoul. Well, I guess we still woulda fought, so maybe I'd still have to deal with 'em, but I woulda thought of somethin'!

"I guess Akane and I would still have fought, but it wouldn't have been nearly so bad if things hadn't gone the way they did. How was I supposed to know that she would decide to take a bath at the same time? Oh man, Akane looked good right then, though. She was so pretty. Damn it! Why does everything always come back to Akane? It's not like I'm in love with her or anything. Or am I? I remember she asked that on the morning of the wedding, and I couldn't answer her. I remember everyone saying that I screamed it when I thought she had died at Jusendou. I was so scared that I might lose her forever."

A smile crept across his face. "Heh, I remember that time when I was engaged to Nabiki, when I said 'I love you' to Akane. The look on her face was great. Real cute though. I wonder what she would do if I ever said it to her again? She'd probably freak out. I remember right after Mikado kissed me, she and I got into an argument over whether or not I would ever have the guts to kiss her. If I had done it back then, I wonder what would she have done? Not that it matters, since the whole family was there watchin'" Ranma scowled. "Pop was even video taping the whole thing! If they hadn't of been there, I would've-" Ranma sighed sadly. "Ah, it doesn't matter now. I just wish they'd leave us alone, Akane and I will get this going or not on our own time, not before. Besides, we're still in high school. Just give us our own time…" Ranma stopped, a wistful grin on his face. He stayed that way for a few more minutes, silently smiling. Akane felt that she would have given almost anything to know what he was thinking during those moments, but then Ranma spoke once more.

"Enough moping, now I really am starting to sound like a girl! Time to find Pop so we can practice." He said, hopping to his feet. He still hadn't looked in Akane's direction, but he was silhouetted against the Nerima sky at sunset. Akane found her breath taken away by the look on his face. He looked so lonely. In a flash, Ranma was out of view and on the ground below.

Akane got up and stood for a while, bewildered by everything she had heard Ranma say. Her hands fluttered to her lips in bewilderment. 'I didn't even know he cared about me that long ago. We were so close to kissing that day and here I really wasn't expecting him to.' One thought struck her as being very important though: "Just give us our own time," he had said. "We'll do it on our own time." Akane jumped off the rooftop, heart fluttering with anticipation. That time was now. She went to go find Ranma. They could try to start things off on a better foot, couldn't they?

Author's Note:

This is the companion piece to Rooftop Confessions! Akane's Heart and Soul. I felt that it wasn't fair if Akane was the only one to ever go up to the roof and monologue for a bit, so here's Ranma's bungled attempt. This is not related in any way to RCAHS, I just felt that this way it'd be more balanced. I did try to keep to Ranma's classic nature of not thinking things through too clearly. This stuff doesn't have to make sense or be accurate, it's just Ranma on the roof talking to himself. I tried to write it the way he'd see it. There may be some irregularities with canon, as I've only seen the Anime and am only passingly familiar with the events in the Manga.


End file.
